The Situ (司徒) Surname: From a Zhou Court Office to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Situ (司徒) Surname: From a Zhou Court Office to the Wuyi Diaspora A Name That Was Once an Office The Situ (司徒, Sītú) surname is one of the few office-derived compound surnames (官职姓, guānzhíxìng) to survive from Chinese antiquity — it began as the Zhou-dynasty office of Minister of Lands and Education (地官大司徒, dìguān
The Liao (廖) Surname: From a Xia-Dynasty State to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Liao (廖) Surname: From a Xia-Dynasty State to the Wuyi Diaspora A Name from Before Writing The Liao (廖, Liào) surname is one of the few Chinese surnames whose story begins before writing. It traces itself to 叔安 (Shū’ān, Shu’an), lord of the ancient 飂 state in the Xia dynasty, whose state name became
The Han (韩) Surname: From the Warring States to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Han (韩) Surname: From the Warring States to the Wuyi Diaspora The Han (韩) surname descends from the royal house of a kingdom of the Warring States — the State of Han (韩国, Hánguó), founded when Han Wan (韩万, Hán Wàn), grandson of Duke Wu of Quwo, was enfeoffed at Hanyuan (韩原, Hányuán) in
The Tang (唐) Surname: From the Sage Emperor Yao to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Tang (唐) Surname: From the Sage Emperor Yao to the Wuyi Diaspora The Sage Emperor and the Multi-Origin Name The Tang (唐, Táng) surname traces its origins to the sage emperor Yao and the ancient State of Tang — a name carried from the legendary dawn of Chinese history through the archaeology of the
The Song (宋) Surname: From Weizi’s State of Song to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Song (宋) Surname: From Weizi’s State of Song to the Wuyi Diaspora A Name That Outlived Every Dynasty The Song (宋, Sòng) surname descends from 微子启 (Wēizǐ Qǐ, Weizi), a prince of the Shang royal house whose fief — the State of Song (宋国, Sòng guó), founded at Shangqiu (商丘, Shāngqiū) after the Zhou
The Lei (雷) Surname: From Ancient Fangshan to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Lei (雷) Surname: From Ancient Fangshan to the Wuyi Diaspora Roughly 3.7 million people in the world today answer to the surname Lei (雷) — a name that means “thunder” and, in the oldest stories, carries the weight of it. It is not among China’s largest surnames; by population it sits somewhere around the
The Gao (高) Surname: From the State of Gao to the Wuyi Diaspora
Gao (高) Surname: From the State of Gao to the Wuyi Diaspora A Thousand Years on One Page One surname. One village. One book that claims a thousand years. The register in question — the genealogy of the Gao (高, Gāo) family of Nafu Village (那伏村, Nàfú Cūn) in Shadui Township, Xinhui District (沙堆镇, 新会区),
The Yuan (袁) Surname: From the State of Chen to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Yuan (袁) Surname: From the State of Chen to the Wuyi Diaspora The Name Before the Place Most Chinese surnames are named for a place. A king granted a fief; the family took the fief’s name; the name outlived the fief. The surname Yuan (袁姓, Yuán xìng) did not begin this way. It began
The Pan (潘) Surname: From the State of Pan to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Pan (潘) Surname: From the State of Pan to the Wuyi Diaspora The Pan surname traces to two royal lineages of ancient China. The first descends from the ruling house of the State of Pan (潘国, Pānguó), a small vassal polity of the Zhou period whose princes shared the blood of the Zhou kings;
The Hu (胡) Surname: From the State of Hu to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Hu (胡) Surname: From the State of Hu to the Wuyi Diaspora The State That Became a Name The Hu surname (胡, Hú) was born in the year a state died. In 495 BC the armies of Chu marched on the small Gui-clan (归姓, Guī xìng) state of Hu (胡子国, Húzǐ Guó), near what
The Ye Surname (叶): From the State of Ye to the Wuyi Diaspora
A Fief That Became a Name The Ye surname begins with a place that outlived its state. Twenty-five hundred years ago, on the floodplain of what is now Ye County, Henan (叶县, Yè Xiàn), lay the fief of Ye (叶邑, Yè Yì) — first recorded in the annals in 576 BCE. The small state it
The Su (苏) Surname: From the Ancient State of Su to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Su (苏) Surname: From the Ancient State of Su to the Wuyi Diaspora A State Gives Its Name (苏国) The Su (苏, Sū) surname traces its origins to the ancient State of Su, a Zhou-era vassal state in what is today Wen County, Henan — and from that small principality a lineage that produced